Urgent Prayer Request

Life is a constant agony. Those few things that made me happy are fewer and fewer. Despair is my constant companion, and with him, his wretched friend death.

I am tired of well-meaning platitudes from people who do not bear what I must suffer. At best, they have only helped for a time, at worst, they have placed another burden on my back, and not lifted a finger to help. I am simply sick of them. No more.

I have some small fragment of hope left, and joy in the Lord, and so my hand is stayed, but only just.

Father, hear our prayer that this person receive the grace to find life and hope through your Son Jesus Christ. Mother Mary, pray for him!

I don’t know what is so bad in this person’s life. I am sorry to hear the hopelessness. St Jude pray for him/her.

Give your problems, whatever they may be, to God. Let them go. Now. Just for a minute. Then another minute. Try for another minute. You are not meant to handle life alone. God is here. Other people can help too. You can choose to believe that or not. It’s time to believe. It is time to let hope into your heart. Jesus of Divine Mercy says, “Trust in Me.” Please trust in Him. You have nothing to lose but hopelessness and helplessness.

ahem

Dear Reader:

I am praying for you this Christmas Eve. Truly, the Lord is good. And remember St. Paul:

“… we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.””

Merry Christmas!

Maggie Goff

I have been there. I am praying for you, and will continue. God is my refuge.

http://redcardigan.blogspot.com/ Erin Manning

Prayers right now for this suffering person. Lord, please send him/her the real help he/she needs.

MaryS

Focus on the blessings that you have: faith in the Lord, an Internet connection, intelligence… These are some obvious things that not everyone has. Gratitude for these things is in order! And prayer: ask our Sorrowful Mother to help you. I’ll be praying for you, too. Very likely, this is a period of trial for you. It is through such trials that we gain strength in our faith. Rejoice in the good that the Lord is doing in you and for you: show your trust in Him by accepting this trial, and He will give you the grace you need to get through it.

the mouse

Suffering has meaning — it has a redemptive value — when we unite our sufferings to those of Christ. I pray that you make the effort to do this, and persevere. Know that Our Lord and Our Lady are with you – always!

James

I think Fr. Robert Barron put it best when he described that nothing any of us can say will truly provide an adequate response to suffering. We can say much about many things, but none of them gets close to the comfort needed in times of suffering. The best answer we can say to the problem of evil and suffering is look to Christ on the Cross. He who came down in order to die for our salvation, did so because He loves us so dearly. In His suffering lies all of our suffering.

http://www.mycatholicblog.com/ Erin Pascal

It’s sad to know that there is a soul weeping on Christmas Day. Don’t lose hope my friend. God is always with you. Pray and surrender all of your troubles to Him and you will feel a lot lighter. Trust and believe in Him and he will help you.

EBS

I’ve been there. With the most desperation in your plea, and a trust that is irrational yet sincere- ask God to take this away. And just believe with all your might that He will. Our Lord is closer than ever, even though you feel abandoned and alone. He is there. Put the picture of the Holy Family close to your heart. Close your eyes and fall asleep, and rest knowing He is sitting right beside you, stroking your forehead. He is there. No man can ever help you in this life. But God is loving, merciful and just. He is also All-knowing- ask for His will and just trust, trust, trust.

God Bless you on this Silent and Holy of Nights.

MK

St. Jude, watch over this poor soul. Jesus and Mother Mary, keep them close and pour out your grace and blessings upon them.

http://www.likelierthings.com Jon W

Praying.

And praying more so that the word count is acceptable.

Janet O’Connor

I know how this person feels like myself. I have had a rough going of it for 5 years now and although I am getting by there are times when I too feel like giving up, but to be honest my Faith has gotten me through. I just had a wonderful Christmas Eve with friends and it was the first time in almost 2 years I did not have to be alone this season. I too will be praying for this person and I ask prayers also for Deneen Ciancialo who just lost her 70 year mother last week as well as her grandparents. Its been even harder for her and her family. Thank you.

Praying for you. Hoping not to put additional burdens on your back. Understand every word on a visceral level, could have written it at times not too far back. Our Faith was the only thing that made me pro-life, in that before knowing God, I sincerely thought abortion was a kindness to the baby and always preferable. (I mean, who wouldn’t prefer to go right up to heaven rather than be “sentenced to life?”) Sending up Hail Mary’s, hoping to brighten the darkness. I’m sorry for your pain.

b a

Dear depressed, This was me 15 years ago. Just a few words. You WILL get through this. Don’t believe ANY of the voices in your head – the Enemy has found a chink in your armor and is working it like a puppeteer works the strings. To hell with the jerk. Try to go to confession – if only to unload on God on how miserable you FEEL at this time. You FEEL miserable – does NOT mean you are miserable. Bad feelings – even major depressive episodes – are like flatulence. It Stinks right now but it can’t last forever.

I will pray for you for I know the chasm of chaos that opens before you when despair has folded itself around your heart like a cloak of raven feathers. Sometimes I feel like I am tottering on the edge of that chasm when I have moments that show so clearly the wretchedness of the world and the wretchedness of my own sins. Agony just seems like the natural conclusion to such clarity and I think “that can’t be, that is so wrong.”

It’s the wrongness that tears at me so. How can there be such wrongness when I know in my deepest most being that the Hope is a real Hope; that the Love is a real love; that the Faith is a real faith? Solid, tangible just as real as the agony and wretchedness of the world but so out of reach at times I could curse the cruel temptations of heaven.

You are groaning with the same groans that have dogged mankind since the gates of the garden were locked against us. But the path out of that garden is not a dark one. There is light. Light that seeks you out even when you are convinced you will be stumble blindly in the dark for all your days.

That Light has illuminated creation with a brightness that all of the darkness can not blot out. The enemy does not want you to see the dance of joy that is all creations great hymn to the great Truth. The father of despair and lies does not want you to remember that we are made for Eternity by the Eternal to share with Him the fruits of the first Garden and the promises of Glory.

You belong to Him. From the very day of the comfort of the womb you have been His. Newly born in Baptism and sustained by His grace you are not your own but His. His beloved. His child. His to redeem, is to save. Do not forget this. The world can be such a wretched place but God’s breath is upon you and with that you can know the truth of how the world was meant to be and how how it will be once again.

The Christ child will stay by your cradle till morning is nigh.

http://Www.SaintLouisAcupuncture.com Dr. Eric

I offer my prayers through the intercession of Sts. Dymphna and Therese of Lisieux.

Xpat

I keep losing my long comments–maybe that means I should shut up.

The short version: I am feeling very much for this gentleman (guy?). I’ve been there, though probably not at that level of intensity. I’ll be praying.

There is also some gold above amongst the commenters.

Hang in there, sir. This too will pass. Don’t worry about praying or “piety.” Your suffering IS your prayer and piety at this point. The work pleasing to the Lord is for you to draw the next breath, to take the next step, to put on or take off your shoes, to be. (Probably sounds like yet more pious blather–sorry. But possibly worth recalling from time to time.)

http://www.mystagogia.net Kathleen Lundquist

(As I scrolled down and read these comments, this one spoke to _my_ heart today. Thanks.)

I pray that the Lord himself personally show you the reality which transcends the world. I can say I’ve been there and am not sure that I am not still there, except that the utter rot is only something transitory and temporary. Churches used to be “communities” in the true sense – where everyone would take care of each other. Love one another. They will know we are followers of Jesus by our love.

Communion without community? Churches full of strangers? Is this in any way what the original church was? For all the errors protestants make on the original structure, have we not lost the sense that we are all responsible for each other?

The Church has abandoned its treasures (see the story of St. Lawrence) to the government. Obama is supposed to heal, feed, care for, well, everything. But it is either empty, destructive, or corrupt.

If Mass seems tepid, perhaps it is because it is that we aren’t in communion. We eat at the Lord’s table, not as a family all knowing each other, happy to all be there together, but as dozens of individual strangers like at any restaurant where we care nothing about the people at the next table, even if we say peace (and whatever infectious agents are on my unwashed hands) be with you. [and it should be around the offertory and not interrupt the flow of the canon anyway!].

In not too recent history, everyone depended on the church, not the state. Now Obama is your go-to guy for food, healing, education, and nearly everything else. We can live both temporally and eternally without Caesar, but not without God – but his Church is his presence in time.

At least they have not accused you of being a fraud (or you did not mention it).

The only source of happiness and joy is our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ himself. Mary, his mother is the path.

I can offer no solace that your suffering will diminish, only that our Lord himself will provide you the graces through his most blessed mediatrix to endure anything. That is purification. It is not easy but rejoice that you have been chosen to be purified for a high holiness. Read the lives of the saints. Many endured far worse. Pray for wisdom, fortitude, and whatever you need. God is faithful. He answers such prayers. You are not merely his servant but his son.

nitnot

That could be my prayer request, since the shattering of my family. I no longer look longingly at 18-wheelers in the oncoming lane, but every day is torture. There are more of us out there than most people have a clue. My favorite part of the Mass is the corrected final line of the creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Anytime, Lord, anytime now.

Xpat

Like the some of the commenters above, I also connect the really dark, hopeless feelings with family issues.

In the earlier comment I had originally intended to link some audio resources, but it was a fail. To try again, Fr. Spitzer’s series on suffering (link below) helped me, though not in “emergency” times; rather, more like in the stable periods. But it has some useful perspective on what the suffering means, though I suspect the good Father has not been in the depths himself:http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?seriesID=7121&T1=suffering

EWTN pulled Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s audio series (possibly because of his “problem” comments recently) but there were episodes that were extremely helpful. In the series Mountains and Valleys on the Spiritual Journey there was an episode called “The Deepest Valley” that was genuinely meaningful, even in emergency times. In his series Hope in the Lord there was a pair of similar epsiodes, maybe called “Hope in Times of Darkness,” and “Hope When There Is No Hope.” I wish they were still up so I could link them.

Iota

I don’t usually post responses like this, but:

Requester and nitnot – you have been prayed for (from another continent, no less) . Now let’s hope I can get my lazy self to remember about this tomorrow and do it again.

James H, London

God have mercy.

This too will pass. Pray with every breath, ‘I believe You God; I believe in You.’

Lord, have mercy.

GoodForm

I know nothing of what I’m gong to say here, but perhaps you are suffering from clinical depression, something that can be treated. I heard a talk given by Al Kresta where he described his struggle with clinical depression and that people just didn’t understand the depths of despair he was in. He said that many people thought that it was something he just needed to get over. They had no idea what they were talking about. Like I said, I really have no idea what I’m talking about as well and I don’t at all mean to dismiss the spiritual element. Perhaps a visit with a good Priest who can recommend a good Catholic Psychiatrist. I will keep you in my prayers. God bless you!

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